


Its In Our Blood

by GhostQueen1312



Series: Gravity Falls Next Gen [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: F/F, F/M, Next Generation fanfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-06-06 03:39:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6736573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostQueen1312/pseuds/GhostQueen1312
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gravity Falls is not an ideal place to start a family unless you're some kind of crazy lunatic. <br/>But after everything they've been through, Dipper, Mabel, and Pacifica probably all fit into that "crazy lunatic" category. So that's exactly what they did. </p><p>Tyrone Pines, second son of Dipper and Pacifica, thirsts to live the same exciting adventures that his father had when he was his age that Dipper often told as bedtime stories. But every summer is the same, boring and predictable countdown until he gets sent back to school again. But this year, he is determined to make that change. Little does he know about the true nature of the secrets that lie beneath the town. (Thanks a lot, "Never Mind All That - Act!) </p><p>Gideon Gleeful Junior- or as he prefers to be called, "Junior" (Please. No Gideon, no Gleeful, just- Junior.) Wants the exact opposite. He wants nothing to do with monsters, magic, or Gravity Falls its self for that matter. Thanks to some weird old creepy amulet his father gave him at birth, he was some kind of creepiness magnet- and a sane human being repellant. He just doesn't want to keep scaring people like that anymore, or worse, do exactly what his father did when he was his age.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Opening

_ Hah..hah...hah… _

_ He leaned against the rough exterior of the house to catch his breath.  _

_ Tilting his sunglasses slightly, he glanced around. Cost was clear.  _

_ He tightly secured his hat over his curly white blonde hair, a hand over the cracked amulet around his neck.  _

_ He took a deep breath as a faint blue-green aura surrounded his fingertips.  _

_ He walked over to the lowest window he could find. Standing on his toes, he touched the frame, making it unlock from the inside. He glanced around once more before pulling himself up and into the house.  _

_ Thankfully, the room he entered the room was empty, just like he predicted it would be.  _

_ Without hesitation, the boy quickly sprinted towards a small door in the back of the room. He unlocked the door once more using his amulet and went down the stairs that led under the house.  _

_ He soon entered a messy, unorganised room filled with old books and various machines and computers. Papers, gloves, and other odds and ends were scattered across the floor and the only table in the center of the room. _

_ Sighing, he placed a hand on the amulet again. He closed his eyes as the blue-green aura surrounded his hands. He paused before opening his eyes. Then without any hesitation, walked over to a shelf in the very back of the room and pulled out a piece of paper.  _

_ He studied it for a while, before taking out a pen from his pocket and copying down exactly what was written there on the palm of his hand before returning the piece of paper where he first found it.  _

 

_ “Ty seriously I don’t have time for this-” A male voice spoke, probably from the room next to the one where the escape route was. _

 

_ He cursed under his breath. Someone was coming.  _

 

_ “You say that about everything!” A slightly younger voice replied.  _

 

_ The boy ran up the stairs, closed and locked the door and jumped out of the window, remembering to close it behind him.  _

 

_ He ran out of the forest and out onto the street. He took off his cap and sunglasses, zipping up his jacket to hide the amulet.  _

 

_ Reading the notes on his hand, Gideon Gleeful Junior walked into his house from the back door. _


	2. Chapter 2

Dipper took a deep breath. Besides the singing birds and the occasional gnome, the forest was empty and calm.  
He gazed down at the small stone statue at his feet. The years exposed to the weather had worn it down, but Dipper could clearly make out what exactly it was.   
He knelt down in front of it and brushed off the dirt that piled up on it’s sides. 

“You’re still here, huh?” 

Dipper could remember those days like it was yesterday. Though he was certainly glad they were long since over, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of regret.

“I never got to really know exactly what you wanted. I mean, sure, you said something that could’ve been your motive a few times, but who knows if you were actually telling the truth?”

Dipper quietly laughed at himself.   
What was he doing? There was no way this long forgotten dream demon could hear him now.   
Even if he could, why would he even care? Dipper was one of the ones who brought him down to his current state, after all.

“All those shenanigans I had to go through...all those monsters I had to face off....In the end I felt like I kinda grew closer to the weirdness in this place. I felt like I sorta...understood why they were here and why they were doing what they were.” 

He sighed, staring at the stone dream demon dead in the eye. “Except...for you.”

Dipper sat there in silence for a solid minute before laughing again. 

“I’m probably crazy for saying that. But then again, so were you.” 

 

“Daaaaaad! Dad? DAD!” 

Dipper turned to face the direction where he could hear a small set of feet running through the forest.

“There you are- Mom’s- looking for- you….she isn’t happy.” 

Dipper grinned. 

“Basement?” he asked. 

His son nodded. “Probably. What did you do this time?” He sounded more curious than worried. 

“You’re smart, guess.” Dipper replied, standing up.   
“Da-ad!”

“Come on. Lets go home and I’ll show you.” 

“If you survive mom, maybe” Tyrone replied bluntly.

“True….” Dipper mumbled, trying to imagine various scenarios and excuses to go with them. 

The two of them were quiet for a while before Tyrone broke the silence again. 

“What were you doing out here? In front of that triangle thing… I could’ve sworn it looked like a gentleman Dorito.”

“What? Oh….” 

Dipper sighed. He hadn’t told Tyrone what had happened the summer when he was his age. He didn’t really know why though. Maybe secretly, as weird as his hometown was, Dipper was hoping to give his son a less terrifying, more close to normal life compared to his. 

“I was just...thinking”

“You seem to do that a lot these days” Tyrone commented. “What is that thing, anyway?”

Dipper shrugged, walking into the house.


	3. Chapter 3

“Hey Paci-“

“HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TELL YOU THAT THIS HOUSE DOESN’T HAVE FIRE INSURANCE!?” 

Tyrone quickly ducked between the couple and into the house to avoid being caught up in the conversation. 

“Hey I stocked up on a three year supply of fire extinguishers just yesterday and made the basement door fireproof. It should be fine!”

Pacifica crossed her arms.

“Well the singed carpet in the living room tells me otherwise.”

“Wait you’re creating all this drama…over a carpet?”

Tyrone snickered and mouthed “Good luck” to his father before walking into the living room to see the damage for himself.   
He saw a rather large dark smudge on the edge of the carpet, and knelt down to take a closer look.

“This isn’t a burn…” 

He looked around . Even if it was, this side of the carpet was the furthest away from the door to the basement. It couldn’t have been from there.

“Found anything, Sherlock?” 

Tyrone looked up to the sound of the voice. 

His older brother, Rodrick was sprawled out on the living room couch, texting someone, listening to music through one ear and sketching something in a small notepad all at the same time. 

Tyrone smirked and stood up. 

“Elementary, my dear Watson” 

He began in a very cheesy, obviously failed British accent that made Rodrick roll his eyes. 

“This stain on the carpet is not a burn! Mother must have just seen if from afar and allowed herself to imagine the worst scenario!”

“Aaaaand?”

“This stain is the furthest away from the basement door, and for it’s size, nothing else in the room is damaged. So…”

Tyrone knelt down and dragged his finger across it. 

“I think this is…dirt…”

“Meaning mom is right to flip out anyway.” Rodrick concluded.

 

“Yep. But what exactly is dirt doing right here?” Tyrone stood up again and went over to the window. 

“Wait don’t we usually lock this thing?” He asked, opening it. 

“Maybe. I don’t really care. Let me know if you find something I should care about.” Rodrick replied, putting in the other earbud.

Tyrone ignored his apathetic brother and pulled himself into the windowsill. 

“More dirt…” 

At that moment, Dipper decided to stick his head into the Living room. 

“Hey kids have you seen my- …. Ty what are you doing in that window?” 

“Dad! I think someone broke into our house!”


	4. Chapter 4

“Pens? check. Books...all there. Suspicious radioactive sandwich in a jar? Still there. Stacks of paper...all 498 of them…” 

Tyrone watched Dipper dig through his cabinet. 

“And that’s all my dirty laundry waiting to be incinerated. No one would look through that.” 

Tyrone sighed and silently agreed. He’d rather put up with a ten hour marathon of Laura the Corn Borer than even imagine what his father’s dirty laundry looked like.

But what kind of idiot would go through the trouble of breaking into a house and not take anything?   
Especially if that house belonged to Dipper bleeping Pines, the greatest genius in Gravity Falls next to Fiddleford McGucket since Great Grunke Ford left the town with his brother to seek more adventure. 

“Are you sure nothing is missing?” Tyrone asked again.

“98.76 percent sure” 

“What’s the remaining 1.24 percent?” 

“Erasers.” 

“Oh….” 

 

About five minutes later after double checking everything, Tyrone dragged himself back into the room he shared with Rodrick.

“How was it?” Rodrick asked, not looking up from what he was doing.

“Nothing was taken. Dad probably just forgot to clean his shoes before he fixed that window a few days ago.” Tyrone replied, flopping down on his bed with a great big sigh. 

“Why is it that when mom and dad were kids they always had crazy stuff happening to them during the summer, but when it’s summer vacation for us, it’s just going to the pool every once in awhile and hearing about the crazy stuff that happened to our parents?” 

Rodrick just shrugged. 

Tyrone sighed. Of course Rodrick didn’t care. His brother was probably The Most Boring Human Being in The World.   
Sure, he did have his times where he was kinda cool. But the rest of the time...he just existed. 

“Maybe I’m not looking for it hard enough….” Tyrone mumbled. 

Just then, the door flung open so hard it might as fell fly off it’s hinges.

“HEYOOOO!” Their cousin, Mari screamed at the top of her lungs.

“Do you mind knocking?” Rodrick asked. 

“Sorry…should I try that again or?” 

“Nah.” 

Mari spotted Tyrone who was laying face down on his bed. 

“Why is Ty pretending to be a pancake?” 

Tyrone quickly sat up, “I AM NOT A PANCAKE!” Then it suddenly hit him.

“Mari! Anything weird or interesting or weirdly interesting happen to you recently?”

Mari raised an eyebrow “Uh...no? Why?” 

“Seriously? Nothing? You’re the half mermaid here!” 

“That’s speciesist.” Rodrick commented. 

“Is not” Tyrone argued. 

“Well there was that time when me, Mom, and Dad went to a restaurant together. It was like one of those places that have a fishtank and there was this one shark named George that would NOT stop flirting with me, so Dad threatened to punch George in the face, and then they got into this huge fight, so then we got told to leave.” Mari rambled. “But something tells me that isn’t the kind of weird you’re looking for.” 

“Definitely not.”

“Meh. If you’re looking for paranormal stuff the best place to look would be the forest, but its not like our parents are just gonna let us walk in there in the middle of the night without any supervision” Mari mumbled.

Tyrone’s eyes lit up. “That’s it!”  
“Uhh...what’s it?”

Tyrone got up from his bed and grabbed his backpack. 

“You’re staying over tonight, right?” He guessed. Every summer, Mari would sleep over at his house and vise-versa at least a million times. Tyrone didn’t see a reason it should be any different this year, or why Mari would be at his house for a different reason.

Mari nodded, grinning. “Thy assumption is correct! Seriously though what are you doing.” 

Tyrone tossed a flashlight, a compass, a book and a few other things into his backpack. 

“Well sorry to change stuff up on such short notice my dear guest, but this sleepover is turning into an unsupervised camping trip.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Ugh...Ty are you sure you didn’t pack any bug spray?” Mari asked, swatting away mosquitos from her arms. 

“Knowing him? Probably not.” Rodrick replied for him. “He thinks mosquito bites can tell the future or something.”

“They give you warnings!” Tyrone corrected. 

“Same thing”

Mari looked around. “We’ve been walking around for like an hour, and we still haven’t run into ANYTHING. I think this is impressive, actually” 

“Impressive, and boring.” Tyrone pointed out. “Dad makes monster hunting sound exciting...but I guess the walking part doesn’t really make for an interesting story.”

“And he had a book about where to find everything” 

“That too.”

“You didn’t pack anything like that either, did you?”

“Nope.”

Mari sighed loudly. “Next time, I’m packing. I’m pretty sure you forgot snacks too…”

Tyrone rolled his eyes and let his cousin continue rambling about what she would have packed, and shone his flashlight around the dark trees above them.   
Still nothing. 

“Also socks. Socks are good…” 

Was he looking in the wrong part of the forest? Or was he looking too hard?   
Maybe his dad was just exaggerating his stories? No, that wasn’t possible.

“Wait you said this was a camping trip...did you even bring anything we can sleep in?   
Oh, and grappling hooks can save lives….” Mari went on. “Hey, did you bring anything weapon like at all?"

“No, why would I-“ Tyrone stopped, seeing something move from the corner of his eye.   
He shone his flashlight around, trying to see what it was. 

“Are you listening?"

“Shh!” Tyrone looked around. It had to be close, whatever it was. 

“Here we go again. It’s probably a rabbit or something like last time….” 

“Or a gnome” Rodrick pointed out.

Mari frowned. “I thought we were going with the whole ‘the gnomes don’t like to be seen’ thing” 

“Guys seriously” Tyrone looked through a bush. He heard something run out from somewhere behind him. 

“I think it just ran off…” Rodrick said. 

Mari nodded. “Great! Let's go home. I absolutely refuse to have ‘eaten alive by mosquitos’ written on my tombstone.” 

“Fine! You guys go ahead, I’m going after it alone!” Tyrone huffed, marching off after where he assumed the mystery creature ran off to. 

“. . . should we go after him?” He heard Mari ask.

“Lets just go back. He’ll give up eventually.” Rodrick replied. 

Tyrone rolled his eyes. Everyone was just so uncooperative. His cousin, is own brother of all people, and every single stupid paranormal thing in the forest that refused to make themselves known to him.   
But he was going to show them. He was going to hunt down whatever it was that he was going after right now, and he was going to prove it to them. He was just as good of a monster hunter/paranormal researcher as his father.  
What was he doing wrong anyway? Why wasn’t he finding anything? 

“Ugh. Stupid bugs. Stupid Mari, stupid Rodrick-” Tyrone’s foot caught on a tree root making him fall on his face. “Stupid me.” 

He pulled himself up and looked around, just now realising that he should’ve been looking where he was going.   
Tyrone was probably completely lost. 

“Well...I’m definitely grounded. But definitely not dead since nothing in this forest is even going to come out and attack me…” 

Right when he thought things couldn’t get any worse, he heard a faint voice chanting something, not too far away from him.


	6. Chapter 6

(after an awful lot of consideration, I have chosen not to write accents since I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with what the characters sound like.) 

It was probably illegal for an 11 and a half year old to be walking around in a paranormal forest without adult supervision past 10 PM. 

But after all the insane (and mostly accidental) stunts he had pulled before, sneaking out of the house wasn't such a big deal anymore. Besides. His father probably didn't even know that he was gone, if he even cared. 

Junior kept walking while repeating the text now copied onto a small piece of paper instead of on his hand over and over to himself. He regretted not doing this sooner, as the grey stain on his pale skin didn't look like it was going to wash out anytime soon.

He was being a bit loud, but since he was pretty sure no one else was out there with him, he decided it wouldn't be a problem. Besides. He had to be louder than the voices in his head to remember things anyway. 

He suddenly froze on his tracks when he felt the same unsettling, tingling feeling that he felt when he used his amulet for too long or stood in front of mirrors. It used to scare the living daylights out of him, but since it had been happening to him since he was 6, he was pretty used to it by now. 

So obviously it wasn't the fact that the feeling came over him out of no where that was sending chills down his spine. It was the fact that he had been holding the paper with his hands rather than the amulet's blue-green aura, and there were absolutely no reflective surfaces nearby. 

His icy blue eyes darted around as his heart pounded, probably loud enough so that anything near him could probably hear. 

(In case if you wanted to more realistically imagine the characters, Junior has a very light southern accent, being Gideon's son and all)   
"H-hello? Is anyone there?" He managed to ask, feeling a bit ridiculous. Anything that was smart enough to understand English was probably fast asleep in the safety of their own homes by now. 

The terrifying fact was, he was absolutely wrong. 

"Nope! Absolutely no one!" A feminine voice replied. Whoever this was, they seemed pretty far away from him. But that didn't stop Junior's stomach from doing a 360 and his heart from nearly stopping. 

"No one you can hear or see anyway." The voice continued. "But I can hear you. I can see you too. If you could hear me, I would probably ask what the heck a kid like you's doing out here at this time. But you can't. So I won't. Only the fact is, I just did. Doesn't matter. You can't hear me anyway." 

Junior was trying to process what they were saying, but the fact that his heart was pounding at such a fast pace he was sure it would explode soon wasn't helping.

Should he run? Should he confront whoever they were? Should he stay put? A bunch of options and possible scenarios raced in his mind. 

After a while of standing there like a complete idiot, he was able to see one scenario that seemed like the safest option. Ironically, it was the complete opposite of running back to the safety of his own home. (As safe as it could get, anyway) 

He started walking in the direction he heard the voice from, which was now mumbling to them-self, instead of talking to him. What puzzled him most was the fact that they kept mentioning how he could't hear them, but he clearly could. Perhaps this person was insane. There were plenty of those type of people to go around in a town like Gravity Falls. 

He slowly walked up behind a tree where the voice was at its loudest. He could literally sense that the person talking was right around the corner. Junior wished that he could make the voices and his heart shut up for once. Currently, those were the only things stopping him from looking at what was happening. 

He took a deep breath, and brushed his hair out of his face and peered out from behind the tree. He was expecting to see some one who actually looked like they were insane. You know, like they've completely lost their mind. But no.

The girl pacing...was she pacing? Her legs were moving, but if it wasn't Junior's brain in desperate need of sleep, it looked like her feet were a couple inches above the ground. 

She was dressed rather sharply, in a dress shirt that was white enough to blind you with not a single wrinkle to be seen, and a perfectly tied black bow tie, which really impressed Junior, since he never seemed to be able to figure those things out. She also wore a yellow skirt, which was a bit short and in his opinion, varied sharply from what she had on the top half. Her bright blonde hair was as close to the color yellow hair could possibly get, and despite the fact that it looked like it could use a nice brushing, it just seemed to flow naturally with the rest of her appearance that included knee high socks and shiny black shoes. 

The only part of her appearance that Junior thought made her look insane, was seen when he accidentally locked eyes with her. 

The girl's single visible eye (he assumed the other one was covered up by her fringe) was gold in color, with a thin black slit for a pupil. He didn't know how to put his finger on it, but she looked like she had seen countless terrible things in her past. And enjoyed every second of it. It gave him this eery feeling that this girl looked strangely familiar to him.

Junior gulped, and used up all of the remaining courage he had to step out from his little comfort zone, and ask: 

"Who...who are you?"

The girl stared at him, obviously in shock for what seemed like hours. 

"Are you talking to me, or is there someone behind me that somehow haven't noticed yet?" 

"I'm...talking to you." 

The girl...seemed confused, to say the least. "No you're not. You can't hear me. You can't see me! You can't talk to someone who doesn't exist, and I'm exactly that! I don't exist!"

Now it was Junior's turn to be confused. "I can see you....and hear you pretty fine actually."

"H-how is this possible!? Who are you? ...WHAT. Are you?"

"Uh....last time I checked I'm just a human being..." 

"No no no this isn't possible, this isn't okay! This is not okay." The girl kept repeating the last part of herself, brushing stray pieces of hair out of her face, all besides that annoying fringe covering her left eye which was beginning to annoy Junior more than how she was acting. Like seriously brush that dang thing over your ear already it's not that hard. 

"Look, I'm talking to you, and I can hear and see you perfectly. Can we just leave it at that?" Junior asked. 

"I-..." She stared at him for a long time again. "Yeah... I guess."

"Great. Before anything. Who are you?"

The girl brushed all stray pieces of hair aside except for that annoying fringe again. 

"I'm mostly called Jill" she replied. "Jill C-....Yeah. Jill."

Junior wondered why she stopped, but he decided not to push, being a guy who liked to keep his secrets as well.

"Okay. I'm Junior." he replied with a small smile. He obviously didn't tell her his real name. He could've, but what was the point of telling someone a name you weren't even going to let them use?  
"Not from around here are you?" He decided to just try and start a casual conversation. "Most sane people tend to stay away from the woods at night" 

"You're out here" Jill bluntly pointed out.

Junior stopped. "Yeah. And I really should be heading home now that I think about it. Do you live nearby? I could walk you home if you want." He added. He was a pretty nice person when he wanted to be. 

"Nah, I'm good. I'm not exactly done here" Jill replied with a shrug.

"O-K then...I guess...I'll see you around?" Junior asked.

Jill hesitated for a second before giving him a breathless "yeah".

Junior decided not to hang onto that thought too much. "Well...it was nice meeting you" he said before turning on his heel and actually leaving. He didn't really get to do what he originally came for, but now he wasn't sure if he could when there was someone else in the woods. The best thing he could do now was to go home and sleep. He had a full day he needed to function in ahead of him.


	7. Chapter 7

Someone- or something. Pretty close. Was it talking? Chanting? He couldn’t tell.   
Tyrone was probably supposed to be scared.  
After all. “Fear is wisdom in the face of danger”. 

But he couldn’t deny that he was more curious than afraid. 

Part of his mind said: 

“GASP- You dare stray from your sensei’s wisdom!?” 

But the other half shot it down almost immediately saying: 

“Silence! I, Tyrone Pines am my own human being!” 

He snapped back into reality when the voice suddenly stopped. He then slowly made probably one of the dumbest decisions in his life by quietly creeping towards the source of the sound.   
He had a feeling that he finally understood why all cheap horror movie protagonists always made all the dumbest decisions.

Well. There was no turning back now. 

He slowly peeked behind a tree, and-

He was expecting a ghost. Or a gemogoblin. Maybe some kind of terrible monster? A demonic ritual conducted by the gnomes!?

No. It was even worse…

He was going to speak, but the sentient cauliflower beat him to it.

“Why is it that whenever I want to be alone, you’re always showing up in my face? Do you REALLY not have anything else to do with your life? "

“Junior…” Tyrone grumbled through his teeth. Sure...Both of their families were had put aside their past and we're getting along now. (Sort of) but this kid...This kid was just…

Long story short, Tyrone had 25 unique words to describe him and wasn't allowed to say most of them out loud unless he wanted to answer to being grounded for a month, best case scenario.

“What, you can just randomly show up anywhere at any time in this town, while I can't?” Junior grumbled. 

“Well- It’s not like you-” why was he stuttering so much? This guy was like, a year younger than him. Well- half a year. Pretty much the same thing. Not to mention he was an entire head shorter than him. 

Junior narrowed his eyes. “Ugh...At least the other two aren't here..” here.

“They left, and it's none of your-”  
Crap- why did he say that? 

“They left, huh? Can't blame them. Probably left ‘cause of your tunnel vision?” He sneered. “Classic Pines move if ask me.”

“How did you-” 

No. Stop yourself. Tyrone mentally chided. He was just trying to get on his nerves because-  
Nope. His attempt at calming himself was absolutely NOT working. 

“If you’re gonna try to point out my “creepy powers” or...Whatever you think I have…”

Tyrone noticed his hand gently brush over the cracked amulet he always had around his neck.

Junior caught him looking, and returned an icy cold glare. 

“Sadly, no. Even if I did have that kind of power, I wouldn't waste it on you. You’re already predictable enough.” 

“Is that supposed to be an insult?” Tyrone asked. Idiot. Of course, it was. What else did this little jerk ever have to say anyway? 

“If you prefer to take it that way, then it's fine with me. And that’s my cue to leave. It was nice to chat with you again, Pines” 

Tyrone decided he had enough of stuttering tonight. 

“Yeah...Gideon.” 

He felt that really satisfying but “oh my gosh I am so glad my parents aren't here to witness this” feeling when he noticed him flinch at the use of his real name, before turning on his heel and running off. 

Tyrone decided to just savor that tiny morsel of victory and head home for now. He hoped that his parents handy made a big deal about him being missing yet or else he would have a lot of explaining to do. And he wasn't exactly looking forward to talking about most of it.


	8. Chapter 8

“Ughhhh...Why did you guys have to leave me like that?” 

It was the next morning, and the stunt Tyrone had pulled last night had thankfully resulted in nothing more than about an hour of getting chewed out. His parents deciding that they honestly preferred to sleep rather than stand around in their pajamas in the hallway that late in the night.   
So technically, he had gotten away with it. 

But he still wasn't over the fact that both his cousin AND his brother had left him to be eaten alive by mosquitoes. THEN, he was forced to deal with...Junior. ...Even just thinking about him made him cringe. 

“Hey, like I already said like a million times already...We’re really sorry about last night, okay? We just thought you’d give up and come back, so we were waiting for you for a good half an hour or so.” 

Mari explained while stirring her cereal, her mouth making a small “ooh” as she watched the colors melt off and swirl around in the milk. 

“Aaaand I wasn't really kidding about the mosquito thing.” 

“Do they say anything?” Rodrick, who had been completely silent the entire time, finally spoke up. 

Mari glanced down at her arms and legs. 

“Nah...Nothing that I can see.” 

Noticing Tyrone slump down onto the kitchen table, she smiled weakly and put a hand on his shoulder. 

“Hey, summer’s just started! You’ll find your...Gnome or...Goblin or whatever it is you’re looking for eventually, right? It's not like anything can really hide from us in this tiny little town” she laughed at the last part.

“That’s what they want you to think!” Dipper, who appeared pretty much out of nowhere, exclaimed. 

“Mason we already discussed this!” Pacifica called from the other room. 

His grin quickly melted into a frown. “Don't call me that! -and Tyrone we are not done with last night’s conversation” 

“I know,” Tyrone mumbled. He was wishing that his dad had forgotten about it. Or...Maybe he did and his mom reminded him.   
The second option was more likely. 

“Uhhh...Good morning Uncle Dipping sauce!” Mari greeted in an attempt to try and break through the awkwardness of the whole situation. 

Dipper raised an eyebrow.   
“I don't like the sound of that either, but I guess it’ll do.” 

“Mom came up with that one,” Mari told him with a grin. 

“Of course she did…” 

Tyrone breathed a heavy sigh. “Look, I get that what I did was wrong. ….and stuff. So...I'll be in my room, okay?” He honestly didn't feel like sticking around, and the lack of sleep was really starting to take a toll on him.   
So, without a further word, he slipped out of his seat and quickly scrambled up the stairs and back into his room.

He heard Mari say something along the lines of: “You should go talk to him” As he closed the door behind him.   
And sure enough about five minutes later, there was a knock on the door and Tyrone had to drag himself to the door to open it. 

“Hey, dad…” 

Dipper breathed a heavy sigh. 

“Hey...so...can I talk to you?” 

“I don't really have much of a choice, right?” 

“Technically, yeah. Come on. It's nothing that heavy.” Dipper led him by the arm, and the two sat on Tyrone’s bed in awkward silence for what seemed like hours. 

 

“....I get why you snuck out with the others last night” Dipper finally spoke up. 

Tyrone decided to play it safe, and just nodded and waited for him to continue. 

“And to be honest, it's kind of my fault. If I hadn't made my summers sound so exciting, you wouldn't have gone out there.” 

Tyrone frowned. 

“So…you’re telling me that everything you've been telling me wasn't true?” 

Well, that would explain why he didn't run into anything…

Dipper’s eyes widened. 

“No! Of course not! ….I’m saying that...I've never told you everything. I just thought...You know. Sparing the details would somehow keep you safe.” 

Tyrone had the feeling he knew where this was going.

“But I just went ahead and waltzed into a creepy forest at night anyway.” 

“Exactly.”

He sighed again. 

“Dad I-” 

“That's why I’m giving you this.” Dipper interrupted.

Tyrone stared at the aged, yellow and kind of dirty sheets of paper. 

“Uhhh…” 

His father smiled. 

“I'm sure what you’ll find on there’ll keep you wrapped up for a while. Just- promise me. No more of the “sneaking out and going into the forest at night” stuff, okay?” 

Tyrone flipped through a few pages. “This should be interesting…” he mumbled. “Okay. I promise. But…” 

“But?” Dipper asked. 

“Are you sure I'm not grounded?” 

“let's discuss that if you decide to sneak out at night again, yeah?” Dipper replied with a wink, before getting up to leave. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You didn't tell him anything, did you? You know what happened last time you-” 

“Pacifica. Calm down. And no, I didn't. I just handed him a copy of the Nathaniel Northwest Conspiracy.” 

Pacifica cringed. “Of all the things you could've handed him…” 

“Hey, it was the safest thing I've got. Besides...It was pretty funny.” 

She rolled her eyes.   
“I hope you know what you’re doing.” 

Dipper smiled sheepishly.   
“It's better than the last time, right?” 

“Tell me about it. Don't get me started on what I had to go through to pay off that bail.” 

“Hey, it wasn't entirely my fault.” He replied defensively. 

“Yeah. Cause 'research’. I already know how your mind works, genius.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (It's a really short chapter. Sorry in advance!) 
> 
> In which Dipper and Pacifica play the pronoun game.

(Short chapter this time...sorry~) 

“So...Lemme get this straight. Your dad handed you a bunch of old documents about an 8th and a half president of the United States….because you snuck out of the house at night?”

“I guess? I'm not really sure what the thought process was between last night and just ten minutes ago...But hey on the plus side, at least I'm not grounded!”

Mari nodded. “Yeah. Last time you were was an absolute nightmare.”

“It was for a week” Rodrick mumbled.

“So what?” Tyrone asked. “It was still pretty bad.”

“I've had worse.”

Tyrone and Mari exchanged glances.

“...Somehow I find that extremely hard to believe…” Mari pointed out. “No offense but all I've seen you do for as long as I can remember is either read, or draw, or say about one sentence every 5 hours.”

“A lot can change in 3 years” was the only response.

“Anyway, you guys gonna help me decode this or what? I'm sure this is just one of those scavenger hunt things that my dad does to keep us busy, but I have a feeling it'll be a lot more interesting this time!” Tyrone exclaimed, hopefully.

“Well, it's not like I've got anything better to do. My parents aren't expecting me home until tonight.” Mari replied with a shrug.

Rodrick just nodded, which Tyrone took as a yes.

“Okay. So we’ve all heard of Nathaniel Northwest, right? He’s the supposed founder of Gravity Falls and that's what literally everyone in this town believes.”

Dipper sighed as he listened to the kids, well...Mostly just Tyrone and Mari excitedly talk over each other. He partially blamed himself for why Rodrick was always so reserved.

How could he forget what happened…

He shook it off to the best of his ability. There was no use dwelling in the past.

“Are you still going to ask him?” Pacifica asked out of nowhere.

“Ask who what now?” Dipper replied in confusion.

Pacifica rolled her eyes. “Don't be stupid, this is exactly what we’ve been talking about for weeks already. Isn't it why you’re always so zoned out all the time?”

Dipper twirled a pen in between his fingers. (A nervous habit)

“Yeah. Pretty much, I guess.”

“So are you asking him or what?”

“Like I've been saying I don't know!” That came out a lot harsher than he meant it.

“I'm sorry-”

Pacifica gently put a hand on his shoulder.

“It's okay. I get it. …but you’ll have to talk to him eventually. You can't keep doing this under everyone’s noses, especially since everyone trusts you so much. You can't afford another slip-up, even if it's for your stupid research.”

“Fine, I'll go talk to him. But he’s definitely not gonna like it.” Dipper replied grudgingly, which made Pacifica roll her eyes again.

“Since when do you even care about what he likes or not?”

Dipper actually had to think about it for a second.

“You’re right. I don’t. ...but... I don’t really want to go digging up old bodies again, either.”

“I guess I can agree with that…”

The awkward silence only lasted for a few seconds before it got interrupted by Tyrone yelling:

“Mom, Dad, we’ll be at the library! We’ll be back by....5:00?”

“That’s fine, just don’t-” Pacifica began but realized that they had all left the house already.

“Well. At least Ty seems to be back to normal…”

“Yeah, that’s great- have you seen my- never mind, it’s right here. There’s no use stalling so I think I’m just gonna go talk to him right now.” Dipper rambled, rummaging through the nearest stack of papers.

Pacifica raised an eyebrow. “Wait- after weeks of stalling, you’re just going to...waltz up to his house and talk to him?”

“Pretty much.” Was his only response.

“Wow. You should write a book.” Pacifica mused. “Called: ‘How to Talk to Politicians Without Offending Them for Socially Awkward Individuals.’”

Dipper stared at her for a while.

“Ok, that wasn’t funny.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be funny I was being serious,” Pacifica replied simply.


End file.
